The Nicholas Institute of Sports Medicine and Athletic Trauma (NISMAT) – the first hospital-based facility dedicated to the study of sports medicine in the country – was established by Dr. James Nicholas at Lenox Hill Hospital in 1973. Since its founding as a research, teaching and clinical center, NISMAT’s approach to the treatment of athletic injuries has brought a new perspective to the relationship between exercise and fitness in all age groups. Its ongoing work provides information relevant to everyone who participates in exercise or sports, whether it is a child at play or an elderly person exercising to keep fit, a weekend athlete or a marathon runner.
NISMAT is a major contributor to the science of sports medicine. Once perceived as a discipline concerned only with repairing athletes’ traumatic injuries, sports medicine is now recognized as a medical science that is expanding the understanding of the body’s integrated response to all forms of physical activity.
Fundamental to the seminal work performed at NISMAT is the concept of linkage. Linkage reflects the interrelationship of all the body’s organ systems — musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, renal and endocrine, and the central and autonomic nervous system — and how they respond to each other during exercise. It describes the interrelationship among various medical disciplines involved in sports medicine, such as orthopedics, cardiology, endocrinology, neurology, rehabilitation medicine and others. Linkage also describes the interrelationship among the three areas of emphasis at NISMAT: clinical care, multidisciplinary research and education.
As knowledge and practice of sports medicine expand, NISMAT continues to attract top scientists. These professionals bring a scholarly approach to their work and in NISMAT see a unique environment where they can both contribute and broaden their expertise and knowledge.